Global Courant 2023-05-17 07:51:00
Seoul, South Korea –
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un examined a completed military spy satellite, which his country is expected to launch soon, while visiting a space facility, where he described space exploration as crucial to countering the US and South Korea.
Kim approved an unspecified “future action plan” in preparation for the satellite’s launch during Tuesday’s visit, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday. North Korea has not disclosed a target launch date, which some analysts believe will be in the coming weeks.
That launch would use long-range missile technology banned by previous UN Security Council resolutions, although past rocket and missile tests have shown North Korea’s ability to launch a satellite into space.
However, there are more questions about the capabilities of the satellite. Some South Korean analysts say the satellite shown in photos from North Korean state media appears to be too small and crudely designed to support high-resolution imagery. Photos released by North Korean media of previous missile launches were of low resolution.
Photos released by Rodong Sinmun newspaper from Tuesday’s visit showed Kim and his daughter – dressed in white lab coats – talking to scientists near an object that resembled the main component of a satellite. The newspaper did not identify the object, which was surrounded by a perimeter of red tape.
KCNA said the satellite was ready to be loaded onto a rocket after scientists examined and tested the device’s composition to confirm whether it would withstand the space environment.
South Korea’s foreign ministry said North Korea has not yet notified international maritime and telecommunications authorities of any launch plans. It said a North Korean satellite launch would violate several UN Security Council resolutions that ban the North from launches using ballistic technologies and “threaten regional peace and stability”.
“The announcement of the satellite launch plan once again shows that the North Korean regime is continuing its illegal provocations while ignoring the plight of its people,” the ministry said in a statement, referring to the broken economy of the country. North Korea and increasing international isolation. .
The visit was Kim’s first public appearance in about a month, following an earlier visit to the aerospace center on April 18 when state media announced the satellite had been built.
Kim said acquiring a spy satellite would be crucial to his efforts to bolster the country’s defenses as “US imperialists and (South) Korean puppet thugs escalate their confrontational moves against the north,” KCNA said.
He was apparently referring to the expansion of joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea and the Allies’ talks about strengthening their nuclear deterrence strategies to counter threats from North Korea, which has had about 100 attacks since early 2022. missiles tested. .
The next step in North Korea’s launch preparations, or the “future action plan” the state media dubbed, could be the installation of the satellite on what would likely be a three-stage space rocket, said Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korea in Seoul. Korean Studies.
Depending on how North Korea’s preparations go, the launch could take place as early as mid-June, though Pyongyang could also time the event to major state anniversaries that fall in July, September or October, the professor said.
Recent commercial satellite images indicate rapid construction activity at North Korea’s Northwest missile launch facility, where the country last conducted a satellite launch in 2016, the North Korea-focused 38 North website said Monday. Activities include construction of the facility’s main launch pad and potential efforts to establish a new launch pad on the edge of the site near the sea, 38 North said in its report.
Spy satellites are among a slew of advanced weapon systems that Kim Jong Un has promised to develop. Others on his wish list are solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear-powered submarines, hypersonic missiles, and multi-warhead missiles.
North Korea has tested some of those weapons in recent months, including the first flight test of a solid-fuel ICBM last month, but experts say the North needs more time and technological breakthroughs to make those systems functional.
In response to North Korean plans to launch a military spy satellite, the Japanese military last month ordered troops to activate missile interceptors and get ready to shoot down fragments of the satellite that could fall on Japanese territory.
North Korea placed its first and second Earth observation satellites in orbit in 2012 and 2016, but foreign experts say neither returned images to North Korea. The UN Security Council has issued sanctions on those launches.
North Korea has avoided new Security Council sanctions over its recent ballistics tests in 2022 and this year, as Moscow and Beijing continue to block US-led efforts to ramp up pressure on Pyongyang, fueling divisions among permanent members of the council, which was deepened by Russia’s war against Ukraine.
